Room 13; Robert Swindells

Enter the Crow’s Nest Hotel if you dare. A school trip takes a very scary turn when tales of Dracula begin on the coach journey to the seaside town of Whitby and a room with no number on it at the hotel is not the laundry cupboard that it appears to be. This is a heart-hammering, pulse-racing, spine-tingling read that will have readers racing through the pages desperate to find out what’s going to happen next. 

The night before a school trip to Whitby, Fliss has a nightmare. She should be excited about the week-long excursion the children of Bottomtop Middle are going on but she can’t shake the feeling of dread. During the first night when everyone is asleep Fliss hears a strange noise coming from the door with no number, except that the door now has the number thirteen clearly written on it.

And Fliss isn’t the only one to have had a worryingly strange night. Ellie-May awakes feeling unwell and the boys on the floor below are sure that they spotted her walking around the hotel in the middle of the night. Are the events connected? Did the boys see Ellie-May? Did Fliss really hear strange noises? Did the number thirteen mysteriously appear on the door? And did these events have some connection to Ellie-May becoming unwell?

Frightened and curious, Fliss and her best friend Lisa, along with the two boys, Gary and David, agree to meet secretly later on the second night and see if anything strange happens again. And what they see will terrify them. The room of Fliss’s nightmares is all too alive and the only way to end things is to enter the room and face whatever is inside…

This is a great introduction to the horror genre for children. It is big on suspense, frights and certainly ticks the box of page-turner. Definitely not suitable for those who scare easily, but for those who enjoy a good fright and enjoy imagining things that others rather not, there is much to enjoy at the Crow’s Nest Hotel and inside Room 13.

This is the school trip of nightmares. Spooky goings on late at night in a room that only appears with the number 13 at the stroke of midnight. Are you brave enough to uncover the terrifying truth inside room 13? Read at your own peril…

Recommended for 9+.